This website is devoted to bringing back the OHIO University Men's Track team.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Title IX Did NOT Force OU To Cut Men's Track

Title IX did not force OU to cut men's track. The Ohio University Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt uses Title IX as justification because he does not want people to know that he cut men's track solely to free up money for football. Hocutt, a former collegiate football star, believes a successful athletic program requires a successful football team. If that logic is correct, freeing up $65K a year by cutting men's track will not make any difference.

Ohio University is toward the very bottom in the MAC for total athletics funding and for football funding. If the OU football program is going to improve to a mid-level team from a bottom-level team, it is going to take a 10 year+ strategic plan that involves millions of dollars of investment. Fund raising, budget realignment, better recruiting, among other things, will need to be higher prioritized. Simply cutting the men's track team and two other non-revenue sports is not going to make any difference.

In other words, AD Kirby Hocutt is pursuing a failed strategy at the expense of 100+ student-athletes, 100+ years of tradition, and thousands of fans. We must stop this strategy and reinstate the men's track team. Halt donations, send letters, talk to your friends and family, notify alumni... make your voice heard. Otherwise, this whole issue will be swept under the carpet and in a couple years no one will even know that there used to be a men's track team at OU for a hundred years.

This is Your Website

"Dr. McDavis has said that this action is final. The only thing in life that's final is when the good Lord calls you home. Anything done by man can be undone. If the university does not reconsider this position, it means that a university that once was so proud of its student athletes no longer cares. If indeed, this action is final, this Bobcat will never bleed green again."